Top 100 wines of South West - Page 2
Discover the top 100 best wines of South West as well as the best winemakers in the region. Explore the varietals of the wines that are popular of South West and the best vintages to taste in this region.
The South-West is a large territorial area of France, comprising the administrative regions of Aquitaine, Limousin and Midi-Pyrénées. However, as far as the French wine area is concerned, the South-West region is a little less clear-cut, as it excludes Bordeaux - a wine region so productive that it is de facto an area in its own right. The wines of the South West have a Long and eventful history. The local rivers play a key role, as they were the main trade routes to bring wines from traditional regions such as Cahors, Bergerac, Buzet and Gaillac to their markets.
The last Trading post before the wines left for the lucrative markets of Britain was the wine town and port of Bordeaux. Britain has been a historic trading partner for the region, which was nominally British for a period following the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine to Henry II of Britain. However, Bordeaux businessmen saw the wines in transit as competition for their own local products and took strong measures to ensure their financial security. The result is the French wine map we know today, with Bordeaux being promoted and the other wine regions of the South West struggling to gain recognition for the diversity and Character of their wines.
This history also explains why the Bordeaux Grapes Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc are now three of the best-known grape varieties in the world, while traditional South West grapes such as Fer Servadou, Len de l'El and Tannat are relatively unknown.
Petit Courbu blanc is a grape variety that originated in France (Pyrenees). It produces a variety of grape specially used for wine making. It is rare to find this grape to eat on our tables. This variety of grape is characterized by small bunches and small grapes. Petit Courbu blanc can be found in many vineyards: South West, Languedoc & Roussillon, Cognac, Bordeaux, Provence & Corsica, Rhone Valley, Loire Valley, Savoie & Bugey, Beaujolais, Armagnac.
wines from the region of South West go well with generally quite well with dishes of rich fish (salmon, tuna etc), shellfish or sweet desserts such as recipes of sublime salmon (stuffed salmon), chicken with scampi for christmas or the coughing cat's apple crumble.
On the nose in the region of South West often reveals types of flavors of non oak, black licorice or bell pepper and sometimes also flavors of balsamic, pomegranate or boysenberries. In the mouth in the region of South West is a powerful with a nice balance between acidity and tannins.
I’d like to say we took advantage of the lockdown and its related commotion to do a stock-take, explore new avenues, turn over intriguing stones, widen and deepen our drinking, taking careful notes as we went. Sadly, no. I won’t say we got stuck in a rut, but we did tend to stick with comfort wines – and “comfort”, in our case, means familiar. Regular readers of this quarterly column can probably guess the labels on the resulting empties. We have a wider range of comfort foods, I’m afraid, than ...
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Decanter contributor and Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) judge Amanda Barnes has been awarded the Debut Drink Book award in the Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards 2022 for her The South America Wine Guide book. The annual Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards, now in its 10th year, champions the achievements of the UK’s current and emerging writers, editors, publishers, photographers, broadcasters and personalities who ‘encourage us to enjoy, explore, experiment and discover more ab ...